Arcades are prevalent today, but they are certainly not new. The computer-generated, full-immersion, nerd's paradises are new, but not arcades in general. And they have used metallic gaming tokens for a long time.

The token in the picture was sent to CoinQuest by Brandon. A member of the World Internet Numismatic Society identified it for us as a token from the now-defunct Aladdin's Castle chain of gaming arcades. If you stop by a gaming blog, you will see that many *older* gamers (25 and older!), remember Aladdin's Castle with great fondness. Apparently Aladdins's Castle has been taken over by Namco, who is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man this year.

As a collectible, there is a small and dedicated following for tokens in general and arcade tokens specifically. But the collector base is far too small to generate any real value. Brandon's token, which has obviously seen plenty or play, or at least, shelf time, would probably sell on eBay for a few US dollars. Were it brand new, it might fetch $10 or even more.

A good way to get a feel for the market in arcade tokens is to search for them on eBay. At the moment, there are 83 arcade tokens at auction, and the average price is about $2 US dollar. As always, older and unusual items in good condition command the highest prices.